86 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



they will not stop at any kind of a statement. Now I am going to 

 tell you a story which illustrates the kind of people they are 

 because I do it better with a story that I can in any other way. 

 One time, on a cattle train coming into Chicago, there hap- 

 pened to be the representative riding in the caboose of several of 

 the different breeds and as usually is the case, they commenced 

 bragging on their cattle. The Jersey man was the first who told 

 that he owned at one time a three year old Jersey heifer and the 

 first year she freshened she gave 300 pounds of butterfat. The 

 Holstein man next said, that he at one time owned a three year 

 old Holstein heifer, that the first year she freshened she gave 350 

 pounds of butterfat. The breeder of Guernsey cattle was the 

 next with a story and he told, that he had a three year old Guern- 

 sey heifer, that the first year she freshened she gave 400 pounds 

 of butterfat. A breeder of short horn cattle who was sitting in 

 the end of the car got up and said, gentlemen, I have got you all 

 skinned. I have a four year old short horn heifer that gave 500 

 pounds in a year and she never had a calf in her life nor her moth- 

 er before her never had a calf. Now it takes just this kind of 

 enthusiasm to make good dairymen and if you can just get full 

 of that kind of enthusiasm here around Clinton, you will surely 

 make a success of the dairy business. 



This subject of the dairy cow and her wonderful possibili- 

 ties, is a subject in itself and the entire afternoon could be de- 

 voted to discussion of it and then it would not be anywhere near 

 exhausted. 



It has been my privilege for several years to travel through 

 the East, principally in New York and Pennsylvania and if there 

 are those within the hearing of my voice who are familiar with 

 conditions there, they will know, that what I am about to tell them 

 is the truth, and I tell it in support of my statements about the loss 

 of fertility of soil and the conserving of that fertility by the dairy 

 cow. It has been estimated that there are 25,000 abandoned 

 farms in the State of New York. While this is denied by the 

 Secretary of Agriculture of that State and others, they them- 

 selves admit, that there may be 10,000 and the probabilities are, 



